The present invention is directed to apparatus for the manufacture and/or processing of substantially flat articles, such as printed products, or other products fabricated from paper, paperboard, corrugated material or the like. In particular, the present invention is directed to apparatus for changing the orientation of such substantially flat articles, while the articles are being transported along a transport path, in a production line.
In the manufacture of certain flat or substantially flat articles, such as paper bags, initial forming of the individual articles, for example from a continuous web of bag material, results in a stream of semi-finished articles which are being transported along a production line, in a particular orientation relative to the direction of movement. For example, in the production of flat-bottomed bags (such as a typical shopping bag), the individual bags leave the initial forming stage as individual half-finished bags, proceeding bottom-first along the production line.
While this (bottom-first) orientation may be advantageous for the initial forming of the individual bags, in that the orientation allows the initial formation to be done at a very high rate of speed (e.g., up to 600 bags per minute) from a continuous web or webs of material, such an orientation has, in the past, not been advantageous for the completion of manufacture of such articles. For example, the attachment of handles to such bags is difficult to accomplish, so long as the bag is oriented with its top-to-bottom axis extending parallel to the direction of transport of the individual bags. In such systems, the material for the handles typically must undergo a sharp change in direction (from the location of forming the handle components), in order to be attached to the longitudinally oriented moving bags on the production line.
Attempts have been made to provide apparatus for rotating the individual bags so that the top-to-bottom axis of each bag is transverse to the direction of travel, and the tops of the bags are positioned to the side of the conveyor, roller table or other means of transport, so that the handle applying apparatus may have facilitated physical access to both faces of the bags.
Some typical prior art apparatus for achieving this reorientation of the bags, relative to the direction of transport, might involve the slowing down of the speed of transport of the individual bags, for example, to permit manipulation by arms or stop members. In addition, other measures, such as directing the bags from one conveyor, to another, perpendicularly-disposed conveyor, while not turning the bags themselves, might be employed. Still other prior art turning apparatus have comprised stop motion turntables, which collect the articles individually or in groups, completely stopping their progress down the production line, while the articles are being reoriented, and then pushed onto a continuing conveyor, etc.
In still another prior art apparatus, which has been used by the H.G. Weber Company, a set of paired conical rollers are arranged with their axes perpendicular to the direction of transport of the articles to be turned. The conical roller pair is positioned so that the individual articles must pass between the rollers. The shape of the conical rollers, and their speed of rotation, relative to the speed of the oncoming articles, were configured such that upon contacting the rollers, the articles passing between them would be rotated ninety degrees. However, the turning apparatus utilized by the H.G. Weber Company is only capable of a specific degree of rotation, for any given roller configuration and roller speed combination.
It would be desirable to provide an apparatus for rotating articles, which are being transported along a production line, which apparatus is capable of accomplishing the rotation without the need to significantly slow the speed of the articles being transported along the production line.
It would also be desirable to provide an apparatus for rotating articles, such as substantially flat articles, which may be inserted into an existing production line, which does not require substantial modification and/or rerouting of portions of the production line.
It would further be desirable to provide an apparatus for rotating articles, which are being transported along a production line, which may accommodate articles being transported through a wide range of transportation speeds.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide such a desired apparatus as described hereinabove.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent, in light of the present specification, including claims, and drawings.